Othello 2: Character, Speech, and Race

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Othello  2: Character, Speech, and Race

奥赛罗2 角色、台词和种族问题：一位割裂的英雄，一个割裂的社会

In the previous episode, we noted that Othello is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have a black protagonist. In this episode, we ask how race shapes Othello’s identity and the meanings of the play. Farah Karim-Cooper, head of higher education and research at Shakespeare's Globe and professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College, London, helps us explore these questions. To bring the importance of race into focus, we start by asking how it would change the play if Othello weren’t black.

上集节目中，我们特别指出，《奥赛罗》是莎士比亚唯一一部以黑人为主角的戏剧。本集节目我们将继续探讨种族问题对奥赛罗性格的塑造和影响，同时我们还将一同追寻这部戏剧所要表达的意义内涵。法拉·卡里姆-库珀是莎士比亚环球剧场高等教育与研究负责人，也是伦敦大学国王学院的莎士比亚研究专业的教授。她将带领我们去寻找这些问题的答案。首先让我们聚焦戏剧中种族这个重要主题，大家可以先思考这样一个问题：如果奥赛罗不是黑人，这部戏剧是否会有所不同呢？

Farah Karim-Cooper: how might this play have been different if it was a white Othello as opposed to a black Othello? That is a really interesting idea to sort of think about, because it does help us to really narrow in on what's at stake in the play.

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：如果奥赛罗不是黑人而是一位白人，这部戏剧会有什么不同？这个假设很有意思，很值得我们思考，因为它可以帮助我们关注这种假设中戏剧缺失的那些内涵。

So you have that base sort of outline of the plot, which could happen in any kind of scenario and probably has. But if you think of it that way, it sort of empties the play out of some of its central meaning. And the most interesting tensions in the play, because we're dealing with a world which is a multi-racial society. And that's what we have today, where white people have to live with non-white people in the same social structure. And so in doing so, there may be interracial marriage, there may be racial tension, there may be racism. There may be racial hatred, which is something that we know exists. And so what makes this play sort of pregnant with meaning and actually gives it the kind of social relevance it has now is the fact that Othello is a black man.

这个假设情节很常见，它可能发生在任何剧情中，甚至你可能还看过这种情节的戏剧。但是这样的设定，从某种程度上会使这部戏剧失去一部分核心内涵，甚至丢失戏剧中最有意思的矛盾冲突。如今我们的世界是一个多种族融合的世界，这是当今社会的现状，白人和其他族裔的人生活在同一个社会环境中。所以就会产生跨种族婚姻，会暴发种族冲突，也会出现种族主义，同样还会有种族仇恨，我们对这种仇恨的存在也都心知肚明。所以，赋予这部戏剧丰富内涵和社会意义的关键就在于奥赛罗的黑人身份。

When you have this kind of major plot device, then, there's a lot more at stake. It's about thinking about the moral ethic, quality of a society. It raises questions about how different cultures can come together, whether interracial marriage is something that is appropriate or not, whether religion is the thing that can help us to decide what is right and what is wrong. These are really big questions that Shakespeare's playing with that I think would just not be there if Othello wasn't black

如果将奥赛罗改为白人，这部戏剧就会丢失更多内涵。这部戏剧探讨了道德伦理和社会特点，它引导人们思考如何让不同文化相互融合，思考跨种族婚姻是否合理，思考宗教是否真的就是我们判断对错的依据。我觉得，如果剧中的奥赛罗不是黑人的话，莎士比亚想要探讨的这些重大问题就压根不存在了。

Of course, Othello has numerous facets to his identity. He’s an older man with experience traveling the world. He’s also an accomplished general in the Venetian army.

当然，奥赛罗有许多不同的身份。他是一位上了年纪的男人，周游过世界，同时也是威尼斯军队中一位优秀的将领。

FKC: That's an amazing position to be in. He is a respected citizen who has dined with patrician families. Patrician families were the elitist families in Italy. And he has the commendations of the Duke himself. He's entrusted with keeping Venice safe from Turkish invasion.

FKC：他所处的社会地位也不一般。他受人尊敬，常常可以与那些贵族家庭共进晚餐，要知道这些可都是意大利的精英人物。同时他还得到了公爵本人的赏识，被委以重任，守护威尼斯，免遭土耳其人的袭击。

Othello’s status and talents are reflected in the way he speaks.

从奥赛罗说话的方式我们也可以看出他的社会地位和才能。

Farah-Karim Cooper: His language is highly poetic, highly elevated as we start the play. And that's Shakespeare asking you to see this character in a particular light. He wants you to see his status. He wants you to see his achievement and his ability to use narrative and actually to appropriate the language of the dominant society and do it better. His narratives are full of description, poetic devices, vivid imagery

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：从戏剧一开始，奥赛罗使用的语言都极其诗意文雅。莎士比亚就表示，想要让大家从特定的角度了解这个角色。他想让大家明白奥赛罗的社会地位、看到他的成就，看到他善于表达的语言能力、看到他运用统治阶层的语言的能力，你甚至感受到他对语言的运用比一般贵族还要好，因为奥赛罗在叙述中运用了大量描述性的语言、诗意的表达和生动的意象。

Othello’s poetic narratives are even compelling to Brabantio, Desdemona’s father. We hear that he  “oft[en] invited [Othello]” to his home to tell “the story of [his] life” and even “loved [him].”

奥赛罗诗意的描述性语言甚至深深吸引了苔丝狄蒙娜的父亲勃拉班修。我们了解到他“常常请（奥赛罗）”到家里讲述“（他）过去生命中的历史”，勃拉班修甚至很“喜欢（奥赛罗）”。

FKC: But when he marries Desdemona, who is a daughter of a patrician family, then you begin to feel the effects of the structural racism at the heart of the city.

FKC：但是在他和贵族女苔丝狄蒙娜结婚后，大家就能感受到深深植根在威尼斯人心中的结构化种族主义开始发挥作用了。

After Othello elopes with Desdemona, Brabantio’s love turns to hatred and anger. A father might express anger at any man who elopes with his daughter. But when Brabantio confronts Othello, he expresses that hatred, as we noted in the last episode,in racial terms, asking how Desdemona could run away “to the sooty bosom / Of such a thing as thou”? Notably, however, those who favor Othello also express their feelings in racial terms.

奥赛罗和苔丝狄蒙娜私奔后，勃拉班修对奥赛罗的喜爱就转变成了恨和愤怒。当然任何父亲都会憎恨和自己女儿私奔的人。但勃拉班修在面对奥赛罗的时候，却用了带有种族偏见的语言来表达自己的恨意，这一点我们在上集节目中也曾提过。他质疑说苔丝狄蒙娜怎么会“投奔到你这个丑恶的黑鬼怀里？”所以，值得注意的是，剧中即便是那些喜欢奥赛罗的人，也会用带着种族偏见的话语来表达他们的情感。

FKC: You might notice when you read the texts that often Othello isn't referred to by the other characters as Othello. He's often called the moor over and over again. And this objectifies him and objectifies his race and his and also his foreignness… The Duke says he's far more fair than black. And what he's doing there is he's elevating whiteness above blackness. It's interesting because it sounds like he's saying, see how white some black men can be. And isn't that a great thing? Othello then internalizes the racism of the society in which he's in.

FKC：当你在阅读剧本的时候，你可能也注意到了，很多时候其他角色都不直呼“奥赛罗”这个名字，而是一次次称他为“摩尔人”。这个称呼体现了他的身份，他的种族，以及他的外来者身份……虽然公爵说奥赛罗比得上翩翩白人年少，但他的这种表述其实还是将白人凌驾在了黑人之上。这很有意思，因为这句话听上去就好像公爵在说，“看，这个黑人竟然这么像白人，这是不是很了不起？”而奥赛罗也接受并认同他所处社会中的种族主义思想，并把这种思想融合进了他的自我意识中。

The way that society disparages Othello’s race, and the way he absorbs some of that racialized perspective, is part of what undoes him. The other part, of course, is Iago’s plotting--which also seems to be racially motivated.

奥赛罗所在社会对于他族裔的贬低，以及奥赛罗自己对于某些带着种族偏见的接纳都从一定程度上摧毁了他。当然，奥赛罗的毁灭一部分是因为伊阿古的阴谋，但这个阴谋的得逞似乎也是因为种族偏见。

FKC: He also uses very inflammatory language. The racialized tenor of the play actually comes a lot from Iago's speeches

FKC：伊阿古的语言极具煽动性。这部剧中，很多带有种族偏见的话语都出自伊阿古之口。

Iago’s most offensive language--the terms “Barbary horse” and “old black ram”--is spoken behind Othello’s back. The language he uses to Othello’s face is dangerous in a different way:

伊阿古说过的最粗俗无礼的话就是“巴巴里黑马”和“老黑羊”，当然这些话他都是背着奥赛罗说的。当着奥赛罗的面，他用的可都是完全不一样的语言。

Farah Karim-Cooper：The greatest skill he has and the reason why his language is so good is because he's one of Shakespeare's dissemblers.

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：伊阿古的说话技巧十分高超，他对语言的运用也相当娴熟，是莎士比亚笔下的一个伪君子。

Iago’s skill in dissembling, or concealing the truth, is key to one of the play’s big questions: the question of why Othello believes that Desdemona is unfaithful. At the start of the play, Othello has such trust in her that he can say, “My life upon her faith.” And yet, apparently within a few days or even a few hours of Iago starting his plot, Othello will say, “All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. ‘Tis gone.” This shift occurs because Iago can make his falsehoods sound extremely convincing.

伊阿古掩盖、掩饰真相的技巧是导致奥赛罗怀疑苔丝狄蒙娜对自己不忠的关键。戏剧开场时，奥赛罗还是十分信任苔丝狄蒙娜的，他说“我用生命保证她的忠诚”。但显然就在伊阿古开始实施阴谋后不过短短几天，甚至短短几小时里，奥赛罗就说“我把我的全部痴情向天空中吹散”。奥赛罗的这种转变是因为伊阿古把谎话说得就像是真的一样，他的话太有说服力了。

FKC: He's very gifted in his ability to manipulate people. And he's one of Shakespeare's great rhetoricians. He understands something quite central about the human condition. And this is what's dangerous about a villain that's so smart is that he understands there's no such thing as reality, there's only perception. And so once you understand that and you know, other people don't necessarily understand that, then you can manipulate people's realities by manipulating their perception

FKC：伊阿古在操纵人心方面很有一套，是莎剧中一个著名的诡辩者。他很了解人性的弱点。他明白世上根本不存在事实，有的只是人对事情的认知。这一点被伊阿古这样的反派人物觉察到后，是十分危险的。因为，一旦有人明白这个道理，同时他又知道其他人不一定都懂得这个道理，那么他就可以通过操纵他人的认知来操纵他们对现实的认知。

When Cassio moves quickly offstage, Iago says he “[stole] away guilty like”--planting the seed in Othello’s mind that Cassio has some crime to hide. Cassio was, of course, only asking Desdemona to plead his case to Othello. But Iago also cleverly perverts how Othello perceives Desdemona’s pleading. When she asks Othello to pardon Cassio, Othello interprets this request just as Iago suggested: as evidence that Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair.

当卡西奥飞快走下台时，伊阿古说他“就好像做了什么亏心事似的偷偷地溜走”，这句话在奥赛罗的心中埋下了怀疑的种子，让他相信卡西奥真的有事情瞒着自己。之后，卡西奥不过是在请求苔丝狄蒙娜替他向奥赛罗请求，但是伊阿古巧妙地引导奥赛罗误解了苔丝狄蒙娜的求情，于是当她请求奥赛罗原谅卡西奥时，奥赛罗就像伊阿古预谋的那样误解了她的请求，认为这恰好证明了卡西奥和苔丝狄蒙娜之间的私情。

Iago is skilled at manipulating perception because he understands other people so well. This understanding of people is also central to another one of Iago’s strategies:

伊阿古善于操纵人心，因为他对其他人也都十分了解。这种对人的了解也是伊阿古另一个策略的核心：

Farah Karim-Cooper: Use other people's weaknesses and mistakes in order to build your case. So Othello's insecurity as a foreigner, as a black man in a white society or in a white space is used against him. Cassio's inability to hold his drink, Desdemona is kindness and generosity and Amelia's desire for approval. So he understands these weak elements of these characters and he uses them to his advantage.

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：伊阿古善于利用他人的弱点和错误来实现自己的目的。他看出奥赛罗作是一个外族人，作为一个生活在白人社会的黑人，他与这个白人主导的社会格格不入，他的内心其实是很不安的。他知道卡西奥忍不住不喝酒，他明白苔丝狄蒙娜的善良和慷慨，同时他也清楚埃米莉亚内心渴望他人的认同。所以，他对这些人物的弱点了如指掌，进而利用了这些弱点来达到自己的目的。

Still, while Iago may be skilled at identifying Othello’s weak points, those weak points only exist, because society and its structural racism have created them. Even at the beginning of the play, before Iago begins to work his deception, Othello has a sense of insecurity as a foreigner.

虽然伊阿古利用了奥赛罗的弱点，但不可否认奥赛罗的这些弱点一直都有，因为这些弱点是他所处的那个社会，以及那个社会中结构化的种族主义所导致的。戏剧开始时，即便是在伊阿古开始实施阴谋之前，奥赛罗就已经有了身为外族人的那种不安情绪。

Farah Karim-Cooper: On one level, Othello is very aware of his capacities, of his authority, his superiority in terms of his martial skill and also his awareness of his achievement. But he's also acutely aware of his position as an outsider in Venetian society

法拉·卡里姆-库珀：一方面，奥赛罗很清楚自己的能力与权威，知道自己具备卓越的军事才能，也看到了自己所取得的种种成就。但同时他也很敏锐地觉察到了自己与所处社会的那种格格不入。

This awareness comes out in how Othello expresses his grief when he realizes that Iago has deceived him. Before he takes his own life, Othello speaks of himself in terms that reflect how society sees him: as an outsider.The play begins with the threat of invasion from the ultimate “other,” the Turks. At the play’s end, as we noted in the last episode, Othello represents himself as one of those enemy Turks. He retells the story of how he once killed a Turk who was attacking a Venetian citizen: “in Aleppo once, / Where a malignant and a turbanned Turk / Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, / I took by th’ throat the circumcisèd dog, / And smote him, thus.” He then kills himself in just the same way as he once killed that other threatening outsider.

对于奥赛罗的这种不安感，我们可以从他发现伊阿古一直在欺骗自己时，表露悲伤的方式中窥见一二。自杀前，奥赛罗用“外人”这个词来描述周围人对他的看法。《奥赛罗》这部戏剧在强大的“外族”土耳其的入侵威胁中拉开序幕。而在戏剧结尾时，正如我们在上一集节目中分析的那样，奥赛罗却将自己比喻成了一位威胁威尼斯城的土耳其人。他重述了当年杀死一位袭击威尼斯市民的土耳其人的经历：“在阿勒坡地方，曾经有一个裹着头巾、怀着敌意的土耳其人殴打一个威尼斯人，诽谤我们的国家，那时候我就一把抓住这受割礼的狗子的咽喉，就这样把他杀了”。说完这一段台词，他用当年杀死那位凶恶的外人的方法了断了自己的性命。

F K-C: Earlier, I spoke about internalized racism because he sort of appropriating the way often people of color have to the sort of ways and means of the dominant culture. And that can be quite destructive to one's own sense of identity and the sort of dignity of that identity.

F K-C：之前我提到过内化的种族主义，奥赛罗一定程度上根据主流文化的处事方式调整改变了自己原有的有色人种的那些行为习惯。这样的调整与改变，极大地破坏了一个人的自我身份意识，摧毁了他的身份自豪感。

F K-C: And at the end, when he kills himself, it becomes an act of shame and self-loathing that seems to embody a lot of the cultures, fears of his own power, his abilities, his prowess, his skill and his talent

F K-C：戏剧结尾处，奥赛罗自杀，他为自己感到羞愧，对自我感到厌恶，但是他的自杀也是多种文化融合的结果，展现出了他对自己的权力、能力、才干等方方面面的恐惧。

If Othello’s destruction is partly the result of these racialized fears, this raises another question. Is this a play that simply represents racism? Or is it a racist play?

如果说奥赛罗的毁灭一部分是由上面那些种族歧视恐惧造成的，那么接下来就又出现了一个新的问题：这部戏剧究竟只是为了表现种族主义呢？还是说这就是一部带着种族主义的戏剧呢？

F K-C: You can easily argue that it's racist if you get to the end of the play and you find that this character, this man has been completely destroyed. And some people argue it is because of his own racial insecurities and those vulnerabilities were made available to Iago. And so he then falls into the old stereotype about black men, which is that he's actually overemotional, he's violent and doesn't have the capacity for empathy and understanding and reason. And these were ideas that were circulating around at the time about black people. So you could argue, yes, Shakespeare's landed on that. And that's the moral lesson. I don't choose to see it that way necessarily. I think the issue doesn't even reside within Iago. It resides within the structures that have forced them together in the first place. And those are deeply racist. And so is the world that this play was written in. And that's all inherited. We're still dealing with that structure today.

F K-C：到了戏剧最后，我们的主角已经被完全摧毁了，你一定会说这就是一部种族主义的戏剧。一些人还会进一步解释说，正是奥赛罗对于自己种族身份的不安感，以及他性格上的种种弱点让伊阿古有机可乘，让他一步步走进伊阿古设下的陷阱，他所暴露出的性格特点恰恰就是周围人对黑人的刻板印象，他过于情绪化，也很暴力，他无法与他人共情，无法理解体谅别人，也无法理性思考。这些在戏剧创作的那个年代，全都是社会对黑人的看法。所以，你也许会说，是的，这就是莎士比亚想展现的内容，这就是道德说教。但我觉得并不一定要这样看待问题。我觉得种族主义不仅仅存在于伊阿古身上，也存在于整个社会结构中，这些看法都带着深深的种族主义思想。这就是戏剧创作的社会现状，种族主义的思想在当时的社会中根深蒂固。甚至在今天，我们仍要面对这种问题。

I don't know if it's a racist play, if you think about the depiction and the way in which people talked about blackness in this time period, Othello doesn't always fit those categories neatly. There is an empathy.

我不知道这部戏剧究竟算不算是一部种族主义戏剧，因为如果你仔细去分析戏剧中的描写，以及当时人们谈论黑人的方式，你会发现，奥赛罗并不完全像他们口中说的那些外族人。戏里的许多地方都能表现出对他的认同。

The fact that Shakespeare brings his eloquence back at the end because it sort of wavers in the middle of the play, his language patterns change and shift as his emotional state does. And so when he comes back to himself and it's full of pain and agony, his eloquence reappears, which means that we are meant to empathize.

能说明这一点的就是，在戏剧结尾时，莎士比亚恢复了奥赛罗的言语中的文采，这种文采在戏剧发展到中间的时候减弱了不少，他的语言随着情绪的波动起伏而不断变化。当他回归理性，心中充满痛苦和苦恼时，他的文采又回来了，这样的表达非常感染人。

Othello’s speech patterns are so significant because language in Shakespeare is the most important window into character. Othello begins the play as its most moving and poetic speaker.

奥赛罗的说话方式十分重要，因为在莎剧中，语言是我们了解角色最重要的途径。戏剧开场时，奥赛罗是一个很能打动人的演说家，他的语言极具诗意。

FKC：He is one of the most beautiful speakers in all of Shakespeare. I mean, people refer to it as Othello's music.

F K-C：在所有莎剧中，他是语言最为优美的演说家之一。人们称他的语言为“奥赛罗的音乐”。

We’ll look at one of those “musical” speeches in the next episode, when Othello recounts tales of his youthful adventures, of “most disastrous chances: / Of moving accidents by flood and field.”

下集节目我们将分析其中一段“音乐般的”台词，这段台词是奥赛罗在讲述他年轻时的冒险经历时说的：“我说起最可怕的灾祸，海上陆上惊人的奇遇”。

FKC: But as the play progresses, his speech patterns shift and change. And this aligns with his emotional and cognitive dismantling that takes place to Iago is systematically dismantling his sense of self.

F K-C：但是随着故事的发展，他的说话方式却发生了变化。随着情节的展开，伊阿古正逐渐系统地瓦解着他的自我意识，他的情感和认知也在逐步分崩离析，他语言上的变化就是伴随着这一系列情况发生的。

The height of this dismantling occurs when Iago provokes Othello into imagining Cassio and Desdemona in bed together. Othello’s language disintegrates into disjointed phrases and curses: “Lie with her—Zounds, that’s fulsome! Handkerchief— confessions—handkerchief.  ... Pish! Noses, ears, and lips—is ’t possible?”

奥赛罗的自我意识在伊阿古骗他想象卡西奥与苔丝狄蒙娜发生关系时完全瓦解。那个时候，奥赛罗的语言支离破碎，全是一些短语和咒骂的话：“说睡在她身上岂不是诽谤她。该死！岂有此理！手帕—口供—手帕！…… 呸！磨鼻子，咬耳朵，吮嘴唇。会有这样的事吗？”

But by the end he recovers his eloquence to speak movingly of Desdemona as a “pearl … Richer than all his tribe.”

但到了结尾处，他又恢复了语言中的文采，他深情地将苔丝狄蒙娜称作“一颗比……整个军队所有财产更贵重的珍珠”。

FKC: So Shakespeare, again, is using language as something that is reflecting the inner life of the character. In Shakespeare mind and speech are co-expressive, and they are reflective of character, identity, status and selfhood as well.

FKC：再一次，莎士比亚通过语言表现出了角色的内心世界。在莎剧中，思想和言语是互通的，它们可以体现人物的性格特点、身份、社会地位以及自我意识。

Othello’s restored eloquence at the play’s end signals growth in his self-understanding and makes a renewed claim on our empathy. But how far is our empathy meant to go? We might see Othello as a victim of Iago’s plot. But we see Desdemona, too, as a victim of Othello’s violence.

奥赛罗在戏剧结束时，又恢复了原有的口才，这意味着他更好地认识了自己，也让我们对他又产生了同情。但是我们的同情会持续多久呢？我们也许会认为，奥赛罗是伊阿古阴谋的受害者，但是我们也都明白，苔丝狄蒙娜同样是奥赛罗暴行的受害者。

F K-C: She demonstrates a fierce love and commitment to him by defying the patriarchal demands on her to marry according to her father's wishes. I mean, that is huge in this time period for a woman to go against her family's wishes, particularly a woman, an elite ruling family. So that seems quite unthinkable.

F K-C：苔丝狄蒙娜深爱着奥赛罗，为了能与他在一起，苔丝狄蒙娜不惜公然违背父亲对她婚姻的要求。对于那个时代的女性，尤其是她这样一位出生贵族家庭的女性来说，违背家族意愿是十分不容易的。所以，苔丝狄蒙娜所作的一切超乎了人们想象。

So she's this incredibly brave woman. But then as the play progresses and we find that she's starting to see a change in Othello's behavior, you could say it's really admirable that she's steadfast in her loyalty to him and protects him at the end … And so you can't see that as actually that's a really admirable quality. I think a radical feminist would want to see her resist his patriarchal rule as well. You know, his need to perform some sort of strange honor killing. And she is she is a victim of both Iago and Othello.

她是一位极其勇敢的女性。但随着剧情的发展，我们发现，她也开始觉察到了奥赛罗行为上的某种变化。你也许会说，她对爱情上忠贞不渝，至死都捍卫着奥赛罗，这十分了不起。但是，你却不会真正地把这一点看作是一个值得赞赏的品质。我相信，一位激进的女权主义者是希望看到苔丝狄蒙娜起来反抗奥赛罗的父权统治，反抗奥赛罗为了某种奇怪的荣誉而进行谋杀的欲望，所谓“荣誉谋杀”很多情况是凶手认为女性家庭成员“失贞”或“不检点”，而将其杀害以达到挽回家族荣誉的目的。苔丝狄蒙娜既是伊阿古阴谋的受害者，也是奥赛罗暴力的受害者。

Desdemona and Iago are described in terms of extreme virtue and vice--Desdemona is compared to an angel and Iago to a devil. But they’re also more complicated than these simple labels would suggest. Iago is an intelligent person who is restricted by the class structure of his society.

根据莎士比亚的描述，苔丝狄蒙娜和伊阿古是两个极端，一个是美德的化身，一个是邪恶的象征。他把苔丝狄蒙娜比作是天使，把伊阿古比喻成了恶魔。但是，他们两人的真实性格，远不是这些简单标签就可以概括的。伊阿古其实也是一位极富智慧的人，他身上的局限性是社会阶级结构造成的。

FKC: In Venetian society, it is absolutely impossible to socially climb into the patrician elite. There is a few, a handful of ruling families, and that will be the case for hundreds of years. So you have these different people who are vying for some sort of status. So Iago being one of them and hence his resentment about Cassio’s promotion. And so you get a sense from him that maybe his resentment, his anger, his cynicism is tied to the forces that have been weighing against him in his position in society.

FKC：在威尼斯，一个平民想要爬上精英贵族阶层是几乎不可能的。处于统治地位的家族就那么几个，而且他们的地位往往数百年不变。所以，你会看到一些野心勃勃的人为了社会地位而激烈竞争。伊阿古就是这样的一个人，所以，他才会对奥赛罗提拔卡西奥而不提拔自己怀有这么大的恨意。你可以体会到，也许他的憎恨，他的愤怒以及他的愤世嫉俗都与他所承受的社会压力紧密相关。

Desdemona is another strong and capable character. But she isn’t immune to social forces either--including the forces of racial prejudice.

苔丝狄蒙娜是另一位强大而又有能力的角色。但同样她也无法逃避社会的影响，这些影响就包括种族偏见。

FKC: When Desdemona says she saw Othello's visage in his mind, she's saying she was colorblind. Which actually is an erasure of his racial identity and of his body.

FKC：苔丝狄蒙娜说她看中的是奥赛罗的思想，她的意思就是自己不在意奥赛罗的肤色。但是她这么说其实也是在抹杀奥赛罗的种族身份和他天生的特质。

The play doesn’t offer us a simple way of seeing Othello as merely a villain or victim. Nor does it offer easy answers to the question posed by Othello’s Venice: how should different groups of people negotiate living together? That’s a question we still live with today.

这部戏剧没有让我们简单地将奥赛罗看作是一个反派或是一个受害者，它也没有具体解答奥赛罗时代威尼斯城提出的那个问题，那就是，不同种族的人要如何才能和谐地生活在一起呢？其实，时至今日，我们仍需要处理这个问题。

F K-C: The play is asking us to respond to him not in a homogenous way. We're all going to respond to Othello differently. The play enables and ambiguity of response. And it does so through this kind of dichotomy of Othello's own self-perception, the plays dichotomy of perception of how we're supposed to see a multi-racial society. It's Venice's own dichotomy. And it was a dichotomy that England was moving towards as well, becoming a mercantile economy. And also, as we know now, the presence of people of color and different cultures and different immigrant communities living in across London. So there's some echo there of London's own experience. England's own mirror itself into the representation of Venice. So I think the play doesn't dictate to us how we're supposed to see Othello.

F K-C：这部戏剧不需要我们用的统一眼光去看待奥赛罗，我们要从不同的视角来看这个人物。这部剧让我们可以从多种角度来看待奥赛罗这个角色，因为它对奥赛罗的自我认知进行了一分为二的描述，同时也对我们应该如何看待一个多种族融合的社会进行了一分为二的描写，展现出了威尼斯城的两面性。其实当时的英国也正在往这个两面性的方向发展，它正逐渐成长为一个商业大国。同时，我们现在也了解到了，在当时的伦敦，生活着不同肤色、不同文化、不同移民族群的人。所以威尼斯的情况也从一定程度上映射了伦敦的情况，英国在威尼斯城身上看到了自己的影子。我觉得这部戏剧并没有强加给我们任何观点看法，我们对于奥赛罗完全可以有自己不同的看法。

Although it is set in the distant past 16th century Venice, it is one of the most relevant plays today. Given the racial strife in our own times, we can connect to Othello in visceral ways.

虽然故事的背景是遥远的16世纪威尼斯，但是它依旧具有重大的时代意义。考虑到我们当今时代中的种族冲突，我们可以在许多方面从《奥赛罗》这部剧中找到共鸣。

In the next episode, we’ll connect to Othello through the unique music of his language. We’ll also hear from one of Shakespeare’s most radical feminists. And we’ll address that great mystery of the play: the mystery of why Iago so badly wants to destroy Othelloso badly.

下集节目，我们将会欣赏这部戏剧中奥赛罗语言中的独特音乐性。我们还会听听剧中一位女权主义者的台词，她是莎剧中最激进的女权主义者之一。之后我们还将探寻全剧最大的一个谜团，那就是伊阿古竭尽全力想要毁了奥赛罗的原因。